Apple iOS 9.3.2 Addresses 'White Screen Of Death' Game Center Bug

The Apple Game Center app has a bug that causes the "White Screen of Death" / Photo Credit: Craig Grannell

There is an
Apple Game Center bug that has been persistently causing game apps to crash. The good news is that Apple is likely going to fix this problem when iOS 9.3.2 is released, according to MacRumors.

What is the big deal about this bug? Many iOS gamers are complaining that the Apple Game Center app is freezing up in the form of a blank white screen - which has become known as the “white screen of death.” And since many iOS game apps interact with Game Center, the "white screen of death" effect spreads further beyond just the Game Center app. In the video below, technology journalist Craig Grannell demonstrated the problems caused by the bug:

Apple Game Center is used for inviting friends to gaming sessions, tracking points and reviewing leaderboards. Because Apple Game Center is essential for multi-player gaming and point tracking on iOS devices, it has become infuriating due to its failure to work on many devices. And this problem became consistent for users when iOS 8 was released. There is a forum post on the iPhone game reviews website TouchArcade created in December 2015 that has over 740 comments from users about the “white screen of death” bug.

The fix was reported by some TouchArcade community members that installed the beta of iOS 9.3.2 and learned that the Game Center app is once again working. “I installed iOS 9.3.2 beta on 3 devices...an iPad Air 2, an iPad Mini 1, and an iPhone 6 Plus,” said TourchArcade user Cccee in a recent forum post. “It's been a few days now and Game Center has been working on all devices. I did not delete any apps, old or new. I have all the same apps I always had. So far so good!!! Keeping fingers crossed.” It is a good sign that Game Center has started working again, but this is a major bug so you should be cautiously optimistic about the problem going away permanently once iOS 9.3.2 is released to the public.

Another bug that has been fixed in iOS 9.3.2 is related to Quick Actions. In iOS 9.3.2, the Quick Actions contextual menus will open up smoothly while in landscape mode rather than having a lag as reported in previous version of iOS on certain devices.

Apple released the first beta of iOS 9.3.2 on Wednesday April 6th for developers and then made it available for public testers the next day. To test out the beta version of iOS 9.3.2, you will have to sign up for Apple’s Beta Software Program. The first beta of iOS 9.3.2 was rolled out within one week of iOS 9.3.1 launching, meaning Apple has been releasing patches and bug fixes at a rapid pace.

The release of Apple iOS 9.3.1 seemed to be expedited in order to fix a major Safari bug that caused the browser to become locked up after after hyperlinks were tapped and long pressed. Safari also crashed when hyperlinks were tapped and long pressed within the Mail app, the Messages app, the Notes app and various social media apps as well.

Even though that bug was fixed in iOS 9.3.1, another bug was discovered in update that allowed users to bypass the PIN and Touch ID lockscreen security. Fortunately, that security flaw was “server side” so Apple was able to quickly fix it without requiring users to update iOS again.

iOS 9.3.2 is not expected to have any major features addedlike we saw in iOS 9.3. The next time Apple will add major features to iOS will probably be when iOS 10 is announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference -- which takes place in June every year. One of the rumors that surfaced recently about iOS 10 is the ability to hide preinstalled apps.

What are your thoughts about the Apple Game Center bug? Have you experienced the "white screen of death" while gaming on iOS? Please leave a comment!